The present invention relates to a dental scaling tool control device; specifically to a miniaturized ultrasonic dental scaling generator and control circuit providing lightweight and readily accessible controls in a footswitch which can be adjusted without reaching out to the counter where such controls are normally housed.
Prior control devices for dental scalers have been generally housed in consoles located on tables or countertops adjacent the treatment chair. All power and frequency controls were typically located on the face of the control device and required the technician who wished to adjust the power to the ultrasonic dental scaler to divert his or her attention from the patient to the console. Very often this required moving across the treatment room to modify the settings before returning to the patient in the treatment chair. So far as known to applicant, no prior art device provided all circuitry and power supply located in a convenient footswitch adjacent the treatment chair, with a remote head adjacent the patient to adjust the water flow and the frequency when a manually tuned dental scaler was in use.
By locating all circuitry necessary to control the ultrasonic dental scaler into the footswitch (including a power control), the cable bundle to the chair is shortened, thus  reducing the clutter in and around the dental chair. Also, the shortening of the dental scaler handpiece control cable bundle because of the proximity of the remote head to the patient lightens the handpiece and offers less resistance to its movement, thus improving the ability of the dentist or hygienist to be able to move the handpiece to clean the patient's teeth and gums. Since the footswitch can also provide a light source for a fiber optic connection, the remote head of the present invention also provides a light system which can supply light to either the handpiece or to the dentist's or hygienist's headlight unit or lighted hand mirror, if so desired.